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  1. Could continuous monitoring through a semi-permanent installation be considered?

    1 vote

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FR1: Non-Destructive Longitudinal Rail Stress Measurement Device  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    Yes, it will be considered. Communication details could help flesh out your idea.

  2. who are the intended end-users of the device and what are their needs in terms of a usable interface for secure data collection

    1 vote

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FR1: Non-Destructive Longitudinal Rail Stress Measurement Device  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    the measurements of this device intended for private data collection (mostly industry, possibly FRA inspectors too, etc). At this time, there are no specific requirements for handling rail stress data collected by the devices securely and responsibly but these are worthy of consideration.

  3. Is this topic limited to predictive maintenance for vehicles that comprise transit fleets?

    1 vote

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FT1: Exploring AI-based Predictive Maintenance for Public Transit Fleets  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    Yes, the topic mainly focuses on AI-based predictive maintenance for transit fleets (buses).

  4. Who is the intended end user of this tool?

    1 vote

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FT1: Exploring AI-based Predictive Maintenance for Public Transit Fleets  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    The topic doesn’t differentiate between transit agencies and their perspective operators and transit vehicles maintainers. As you mentioned, the main goal of this research is to explore the use of AI for transit vehicles maintenance at any level of transit vehicle owners, operators, and maintainers.

  5. Are there any restrictions on integrating IoT devices from multiple manufacturers to enable AI-driven predictive maintenance, real-time moni

    1 vote

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FT1: Exploring AI-based Predictive Maintenance for Public Transit Fleets  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    There is no restrictions on integrating IoT devices from multiple manufacturers to enable AI-driven predictive maintenance.

  6. What type of input data should we consider: similar sensor data or completely disparate data input

    1 vote

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FT1: Exploring AI-based Predictive Maintenance for Public Transit Fleets  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    There is no restrictive on the use of data types and formats that can be used for the proposed solutions and as well as the research approaches the potential offeror wishes to explore. For the availability of data, government will not provide sample data. Potential offerors can reach out directly to any transit agency/ies for any data needed for their proposed solution.

  7. Dominant cost factor for predictive Maintenance in public transit

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FT1: Exploring AI-based Predictive Maintenance for Public Transit Fleets  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    The topic is open to AI-based predictive maintenance solutions to any public transit vehicles regardless of the energy sources of buses.

  8. Do you provide resources to make introductions to FTA Fleets?

    7 votes

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FT1: Exploring AI-based Predictive Maintenance for Public Transit Fleets  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    FTA doesn’t own and operate public transportation vehicles rather than providing financial assistance to transit agencies through formula and discretionary grants for the purchase of public transportation vehicles.

    For the requested information, FTA's National Transit Database (NTD) could be a starting point. NTD was set up to be the repository of data about the financial, operating and asset conditions of American transit systems. Transit agencies report data on a number of key metrics including Vehicle Revenue Miles (VRM), Vehicle Revenue Hours (VRH), Passenger Miles Traveled (PMT), Unlinked Passenger Trips (UPT), and Operating Expenses (OE). However, this information might not be sufficient for the Potential offerors to conduct their research on this topic.

    Potential offerors can reach out directly to any transit agency/ies if they need detailed data on the conditions of transit vehicle fleets.

  9. Are there specific integration tools the government has used or looking to use?

    4 votes

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FT1: Exploring AI-based Predictive Maintenance for Public Transit Fleets  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    Public transportation vehicles are owned and operated by transit agencies and the government has no direct involvement in any specific integration tools for transit vehicles management and maintenance.

  10. Has ultrasonics been considered as a solution to this problem? If not, why not? If so, why was it rejected?

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FR1: Non-Destructive Longitudinal Rail Stress Measurement Device  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    Yes, using ultrasonics has been tried multiple times. The challenge has been to get a reliable measurement without knowing the “zero-stress-state” or RNT of the rail ahead of time for various types of rail and track constructions.

  11. What is the approximate magnitude of stress that is desired to be detected?

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FR1: Non-Destructive Longitudinal Rail Stress Measurement Device  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    We expect the researchers proposing on this topic to be familiar with:

    1) typical rail sizes (115, 136, 141, etc) used in the US transportation network
    2) typical rail neutral temperatures (stress-free temperatures) (RNT) of the rails in the network (maybe 80 to 110F)
    3) atypical RNT values after winter rail adjustments (maybe 20F or lower is reasonable)
    4) strength of rail, coefficient of thermal expansion, and when a track might buckle
    5) maximum rail temperatures (maybe 140 F or more)

    With the information above, one can calculate several estimates of rail stress. In addition, we would like to measure the stress accurately enough to determine the RNT of a given rail to +/- 5 F at a given time.

  12. How could I go about obtaining test samples of rail sections with negligible and significant levels of internal stress?

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  U.S. DOT FY 2025 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A » 25-FR1: Non-Destructive Longitudinal Rail Stress Measurement Device  ·  Admin →
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    Admindotsbir@dot.gov (SBIR/Volpe, Department of Transportation) commented  · 

    You could work with a railroad or a rail manufacturer or plan a visit to the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, CO, where rails are available for testing. We don’t have a catalog of rails with specific amounts of residual stress, but we do have a couple of locations on track with known Rail Neutral Temperatures (RNT).

    In this topic, please remember that we aim to measure longitudinal rail stress or RNT due to the rail being constrained on the track and changes in rail temperature. We are not interested in measuring residual stresses within the rail, although they can affect RNT measurements.

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